Antoine Roussel leaving the Dallas Stars via free agency was a poorly kept secret. He was seeking money the Stars were unwilling or unable to offer; a modest raise for a quality player. He got it from the Vancouver Canucks in the form of a four year deal for $3,000,000 a year.

It's a fine contract for a fine player. Roussel could skate, chip in the occasional goal, and he was an excellent penalty killer with the ability to push the attack up the ice when given the chance to do so. The Stars might not miss him on the ice as much as fans will miss him off the ice. One of the first questions the Stars answered this offseason was how they were going to try to replace him.

Between runs at John Tavares and Erik Karlsson, here's the little-noticed element of the Stars' offseason

Blake Comeau is going to give the Stars a fairly close approximation of what Roussel brought to the ice, and he might actually be better. His contract is a year shorter and saves half a million a year in AAV to help the salary cap situation a hair. Taking a deep dive into the world of #FancyStats shows the type of bargain the Stars got relative to re-signing Roussel.

Goals Above Replacement (GAR) is the hockey equivalent of WAR in baseball. Essentially it tries to paint a broad picture of what a player brings to the game in six categories. For a more in depth explanation of how it works I strongly suggest heading here.

Sean Tierney has a public tableau with all of the data if you want to play around with it. It shows Comeau contributing 5.57 GAR/82 (his total goals above replacement over an 82 game season) compared to 5.26 for Roussel.

/Sean Tierney

One thing that truly stands out is that Roussel does do more positive than Comeau, but the number of penalties he takes limits his overall value. If you're of the mind that Roussel is going to continue taking a large amount of penalties (he will) Comeau comes out on top in GAR.

Comeau is significantly better defensively. He's a better playmaker, and he takes a more dangerous caliber of shots compared to Roussel. Again, he's better in every facet of the game.

Zone entries and exits have been tracked extensively too. We have two years of data we can use to compare Comeau and Roussel thanks to Corey Sznajder.

/Corey Sznajder and CJ Turturo

Once again, Comeau dominates Roussel in almost every regard. Sure, he isn't coming in with the mentality Roussel does. He isn't coming in with a cult following that Roussel has built up over the years. He's a better player though, and his signing makes the Stars stronger.

There's an argument to be made that the Stars should have held this spot open for a younger player. The Stars are at ten forwards with three restricted free agents to sign. Jason Dickinson makes 14. If the Stars do eventually acquire another top six forward it potentially adds more confusion to the picture. Should they have left space for a kid to push through? Perhaps, but as long as Gemel Smith takes the regular shift he earned last year my dander won't be up.

Replacing Roussel won't be easy, but the hardest part will be filling the void fans will feel with him terrorizing the Pacific Division. On the ice Comeau makes the Stars a better team in the short term. With the Stars hoping their window is now the move makes sense.